David and Luisa Scacchetti, who run nursery products company Mamas & Papas in Colnebridge, have promised to help fund a new cancer research centre.

Each of them lost their fathers to the disease.

The donation will help develop a new institute at St James' Hospital, Leeds, which will attract some of the world's leading scientists.

The couple, founders of Mamas & Papas, the biggest supplier of nursery products in the UK, are making the donation to Cancer Research UK, which is a key partner in the institute.

Luisa said: "Both my husband and I have suffered loss as a direct result of this disease.

"We hope that our support for Cancer Research UK will help the continual work towards finding new cures and treatments that help to reduce deaths from cancer for this generation and the next."

David and Luisa have also embarked on a nationwide campaign to continue to raise further funds.

Staff at the Colnebridge firm have helped raised more than £8,000 this year through supporting Cancer Research UK's national events such as Get In the Pink for Breast Cancer Awareness month and the Race for Life sponsored run. The couple will lay the first stone of the new research centre at St James' Hospital, Leeds next Tuesday.

Prof Peter Selby, CBE, director of Cancer Research UK clinical centre at St James' said: "The support of Mamas & Papas through the generosity of David and Luisa Scacchetti has been absolutely outstanding.

"Their commitment to furthering internationally recognised cancer research is enabling Cancer Research UK to recruit Prof Richard Vile, one of the world's leading cancer research experts, to be based at St James's. I cannot say enough to thank them."

Prof Vile is professor of molecular medicine at the Mayo Clinic, Minnesota, one of the top US cancer treatment and research centres.

He is widely recognised as being the most talented cancer immunotherapist of the modern era.

Immunotherapy not only kills the cancerous cells, but also enables the body to build an immunity to prevent the recurrence of the disease.

A new research ward will be set up in Leeds, where treatments developed under the guidance of Prof Vile will be trialled with cancer patients from across West Yorkshire.

A six-storey research building, the Mamas and Papas Laboratory, will be headed by Prof Vile when it opens in 2005.